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Jim Gem: Lean On Your Delts

Add a tweak to your dumbbell lateral raises to build a broader set of shoulders.

Jim Gem: Lean On Your Delts
Written By Jim Stoppani, PhD
Updated November 29, 2018

On shoulder day, one of my main objectives is to overload and thoroughly exhaust the middle head of the deltoids to create maximum width up top. So naturally, I do lateral raises quite often.

And although it's a great exercise, there's just one minor issue with it: When you do standard dumbbell lateral raises, during the first 30 degrees of movement (starting with your arms by your sides) the supraspinatus muscle of your rotator cuff takes the majority of the load. The delts don't really kick in until after you've gone through this portion of the range of motion. So what does this mean? It means that this smaller and weaker rotator cuff muscle is limiting the amount of weight you can do – and quite possibly your results. But there's one simple way to get around this: Do leaning dumbbell lateral raises.

This variation of the lateral raise helps to limit the use of the supraspinatus muscle to place more of the emphasis on the middle head of the delts. To perform the exercise, simply hold onto a solid structure (like a power rack) with one

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